Homilies on 1 Timothy 16.1–16.2

“I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels to keep these rules without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality. Do not lay hands hastily …, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.”

Having spoken about bishops, deacons, men, women, widows, presbyters, and everything else, and having shown over how many matters the bishop has authority, when he came to speak about judging he added: “I charge you before God and our Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels to keep these rules without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality.” Now at last he gives his charge in fearful terms. He did not hold back because Timothy was his beloved child. One who was not ashamed to say of himself, “I fear lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified,” would much less have held back or felt shame regarding Timothy. He fittingly calls the Father and the Son to witness; but why the elect angels? Out of great gentleness. Moses too speaks so: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you,” because of the Master’s great gentleness; and again, “Hear, you valleys, foundations of the earth.” He calls the Father and the Son as witnesses of what he has said, making his defense to them for the coming day, if anything should be done contrary to what is right, as one who has discharged his whole duty. “To keep these rules,” he says, “without prejudice, doing nothing from partiality.” That is, so that you may be impartial and even-handed toward those who come to law and are judged before you, so that no one may get to you first or win you over in advance. Who are the elect angels? He implies that there are some who are not such. Jacob too takes God as witness privately, and the heap of stones. So we too often take both greater and lesser persons as witnesses. So great a thing is testimony. It is as if he said: I call God and his Son and his servants to witness that I have charged you; before them, see, I give you this charge. He puts Timothy in fear.

Then, having said this, the most timely thing of all, he added what most of all holds the church together, the matter of ordinations. “Lay hands hastily on no one,” he says, “nor share in the sins of others.” What does “hastily” mean? Not after a first examination, nor a second, nor a third, but after looking about many times and examining exactly; for the thing is not without danger. You too will pay the penalty for that man’s sins, since you gave him his office: both for his past sins and for those to come. Having passed over the earlier ones at the wrong time, you will be answerable for those to come as well: for these as their cause, since you brought him into office; and for the past ones as not having let him mourn for them; …; as you share in his good deeds, so you share in his sins. “Keep yourself pure.” Here he speaks of chastity.

“No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” If Paul advises moderation to a man who had given himself so much to fasting and had used water for so long that he was ill, and frequently ill, and Timothy does not refuse, much more ought we not to be vexed when we receive admonition from anyone. And why did Paul not strengthen his stomach? Not because he was unable, but because by this too he was arranging something great; for clearly one whose garments raised the dead could do this too. Why then? So that even now, if we see great and virtuous men sick, we may not be offended; for that too happened for our good. If to Paul himself an angel of Satan was given, so that he might not be exalted, much more to Timothy; for the signs were enough to lift him up into folly. That is why Paul lets him be subject to the rule of medicine, so that he too might be moderate, and so that the others might not be offended, but might learn that they, being of the same nature as we, achieved what they achieved. It seems to me that he was also sickly in other ways, and Paul shows this by saying, “because of your frequent ailments,” both of the stomach and of the other parts. Yet he did not allow him to fill himself freely with wine, but only as much as is for health, not for luxury.

“The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others follow after.” Since he was speaking about ordinations and had said, “Do not share in the sins of others,” what then, someone says, if I do not know them? “The sins of some are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but for some they follow after.” For some, he says, they are evident, in that they go before; for others not, but they follow after. “So also good works are conspicuous, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.”

“Let all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.” “Let them regard them as worthy of all honor,” he says. Do not think that because you are a believer you are free: this is freedom, to serve all the more. For if the unbeliever sees slaves behaving insolently because of the faith, he will often blaspheme, as though the doctrine bred sedition; but when he sees them obedient, he will be more readily persuaded and will attend more to what is said. For both God and the preaching will be blasphemed if they do not obey. What then, someone says, if the masters are unbelievers? Even so they must yield, for the sake of God’s name. “Those who have believing masters,” he says, “must not despise them because they are brothers, but must serve them all the more, because those who receive the benefit are believers and beloved.”

As if he said: If you have been counted worthy of such honor as to have your masters as brothers, for this very reason you ought to yield to them all the more. “Going before to judgment,” he says; that is, of evil deeds some escape notice here and others do not, but there neither evil nor good can escape notice. What does “going before to judgment” mean? As when someone sins in a way that already condemns him; when someone is incorrigible; when someone is expected to amend himself and does nothing of the kind. To what purpose, then, is this said? That even if some escape notice here, there they will not escape; there everything is laid bare. And this is the greatest comfort to those who do right.

Then, since he had said, “nothing from partiality,” he necessarily explains it by adding, “Let all who are under the yoke as slaves.” And what has this to do with the bishop, someone asks? Very much: he must exhort and teach these too. And it is fitting that he gives instructions about them here. We see him everywhere giving commands to slaves rather than to masters, showing them ways of submission and taking much account of them. He urges them to submit with great gentleness, and exhorts the masters to relax their severity, saying, “forbearing threatening.” Why does he give these instructions? In the case of unbelieving masters, naturally, for there was no point in addressing those who do not listen; but in the case of believers, why? Because masters contribute more to their slaves than servants to their masters. They are the ones who pay out gold, who take thought for supplying necessities, for clothing, and for everything else. So the masters perform the greater service; and he hinted at this here too by saying, “because those who receive the benefit are believers and beloved.” … they exert themselves for your rest; and ought they not to enjoy much honor from their servants?

And if he commanded slaves to show such obedience, consider how we ought to be disposed toward the Master who brought us from nonbeing into being, who feeds us and clothes us. If in no other way, let us at least serve him as our servants serve us. Have they not given their whole life to this, to give their masters rest? Is not this their work and their life, to care for their masters’ affairs? Do they not care for the master’s affairs all day, and for their own often only a small part of the evening? But we do the opposite: our own affairs all the time, and the Master’s not even a small part; and this though he does not need what is ours, as masters need their slaves, but even these services turn again to our own gain. There the servant’s service benefits the master; but here the slave’s service benefits the Master nothing, but profits the servant himself. “For you have no need of my goods,” it says. Tell me, what does God gain if I am righteous? What harm does he suffer if I am unrighteous? Is not that nature undefiled, unharmed, above all passion? Servants have nothing of their own; everything is the master’s, even if they are ten thousand times rich; but we have many things of our own, and we enjoy no small honor from the King of all. What master has given his own son for a servant? None; all would rather give their servants for their children. But here the opposite: “He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all,” for enemies, for those who hated him. Servants, even when they are ordered to do heavy tasks, are not vexed even so, especially if they are well-disposed; but we complain countless times. The master promises his servants nothing like what God promises us. What does he promise? Freedom here, a freedom that has often proved harder than slavery; and this is his greatest gift. With God nothing is temporary, nothing perishable. What then? Do you want to learn? Listen: “No longer do I call you servants,” he says; “you are my friends.”

As our servants serve us, so let us serve the Master; or rather, do we show even a tiny fraction of such service? They practice philosophy from necessity, having only shelter and food; but we, who have countless things and hope for more, insult our benefactor by our luxury. If from nowhere else, let us at least take rules of philosophy from them. Scripture knows how to send people not only to servants but even to irrational creatures, as when it bids us imitate the bee and the ants. I urge you at least to imitate servants: whatever they do for fear of us, let us do at least as much for fear of God; for we do not find you doing so. For fear of us they are insulted countless times and stand in silence more than any philosopher; they are insulted justly and unjustly, and do not answer back but entreat, though often they have done no wrong. They take nothing beyond what they need, and are often content with less; they sleep on straw, fill themselves with bread alone, and have every other part of their way of life cheap, and they do not complain or chafe, for fear of us. Entrusted with money, they give it all back (do not speak to me of the wicked among servants, but of those not very bad); if we threaten, they shrink at once. Is not this philosophy? Do not say that it happens by necessity; for the necessity of Gehenna lies upon you too, and not even so are you sober, nor do you give God as much honor as you receive from your servants. Each servant has his assigned room, and does not trespass on his neighbor’s, nor damage it from desire for more. One may see these things in households, and you would rarely see a servant snatching or damaging another servant’s things. But among free people the opposite happens: we devour one another; we do not fear the Master; we seize the things of our fellow servants before his eyes. A servant would not do this, except when his master does not see or hear; but we dare everything while God sees and hears it all. The fear of their master is always before their eyes, but ours never. That is why everything has been turned upside down, everything thrown into confusion and corrupted; and we do not even take account of our own sins, while when our servants sin we examine everything exactly, even the smallest things.

I say these things not because I want to make servants careless, but to turn our own carelessness around and rouse our slackness, so that we may serve God at least as our servants serve us; so serve him who made us, as those who share our nature serve us, though they receive nothing of the kind from us. These too are free by nature: “Let them rule over the fish” was said to them too. This slavery is not from nature, but from some cause and circumstance; yet they show us much honor. We insist with all exactness that they serve us; but to God we give not even a tiny fraction, though the benefit returns to us. The more zealously we serve God, the more we benefit ourselves and the more we gain. Let us not rob ourselves of so great a benefit; for God is self-sufficient and in need of nothing, while the reward and the gain run back to us. As people serving not God but ourselves, then, let us be so disposed, I beg you, and serve him with fear and trembling, so that we may obtain the promised good things in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.